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The Sixth Additional Protocol to the Constitution of the Universal Postal Union, the General Regulations of the Universal Postal Union, and the Universal Postal Convention and Final Protocol, agreed at the 1999 Beijing Congress, entered into force on 1 January 2001. An Instrument of Ratification/Approval will be forwarded to the depositary following the ratification or approval, as appropriate, by the Government of these treaty documents.
The Universal Postal Union is an inter-governmental organisation which was originally established in 1874 with the objective of establishing arrangements for international mail. New Zealand has been a member of the UPU in its own right since 1907. There are presently 189 member countries of the UPU comprising a 'single postal territory' for the provision of international mail services. New Zealand benefits from UPU membership by being entitled to have mail addressed to other UPU countries delivered within those countries in accordance with UPU requirements.
The advantages to New Zealand of the UPU treaty documents entering into force are that:
The disadvantages to New Zealand of the UPU treaty documents entering into force are that:
The Sixth Additional Protocol to the Constitution
The Sixth Additional Protocol to the Constitution of the Universal Postal Union makes some minor wording changes to Articles 22, 25 and 29 of the UPU Constitution. The amendments are technical and non-controversial in nature and have no impact on New Zealand. They either clarify the wording of the Article without imposing additional obligations, or provide for a change in the process for the presentation of proposals to the UPU.
The General Regulations
The General Regulations of the UPU deal with the application of the Constitution and the functioning of the UPU and its various bodies. The General Regulations have also been amended at the Beijing Congress, with New Zealand being a signatory to the amended regulations. The amendments to the General Regulations, which implement the Constitution, are minor, technical and non-controversial in nature. They provide for minor changes to the internal workings of the UPU and its bodies. The amendments have no impact of any significance on New Zealand.
The UPU Convention
The Convention of the UPU sets out the rules applicable throughout the international postal service. The amendments to the Convention made at Beijing do, in some instances, impose obligations of significance on New Zealand, while other amendments are only minor in nature and concern procedural, administrative or minor operational matters.
The amendments to the Convention which are of significance for New Zealand concern the terminal dues system, and members’ obligations concerning universal service, basic service provision, postal security and child pornography.
Terminal Dues
The Beijing Congress agreed to make changes to the terminal dues provisions of the UPU Convention in order to move away from a single, flat-rate global tariff towards a system of country-specific tariffs based on costs, with domestic tariffs being used as a proxy for costs. The changes made, however, only impose the new system on industrialised countries, with developing countries continuing to operate under the old system. This is because it was recognised that developing countries would need time and assistance in order to change to a cost-based system. Consequently, the Congress decided to impose a 7.5% levy on mail flows from industrialised countries to developing countries (the Quality of Service Fund) to enable developing countries to receive the required assistance.
The effect of the terminal dues amendments is that New Zealand, as an industrialised country, is required under the new UPU provisions to charge and pay higher amounts to industrialised countries than to developing countries until such time as the developing countries move to the new system. This is of concern to New Zealand because it appears to give rise to a terminal dues system which is inconsistent with Article II of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). Article II requires GATS members to accord the same treatment given to the services suppliers of one GATS member to the services suppliers of all other GATS members (Most Favoured Nation, or MFN, treatment). New Zealand was not able to convince other UPU members to amend the proposal to render it MFN-consistent.
The reformed terminal dues system left New Zealand in a position where obligations assumed under the UPU could be argued to breach obligations under the GATS. For this reason, New Zealand made a declaration at the Beijing Congress reflecting its GATS obligations. The declaration provides that:
The practical issue arising from the MFN-consistency issue is whether Transend Worldwide Ltd (formerly New Zealand Post International Ltd) can apply the terminal dues rates agreed in Beijing without breaching New Zealand’s GATS commitments. Transend favours this approach, and has been applying it, because it has the advantage of being administratively simple and preserving delivery standards for New Zealand’s outbound mail. There is a risk that this approach could be seen as inconsistent with the MFN obligation. Officials judge it unlikely that another GATS member would challenge New Zealand on the issue (New Zealand, Australia, and to a lesser extent the US, were the only countries at the UPU Beijing Congress to express concern over the possible inconsistency of the terminal dues reforms with the GATS).
Universal Service Obligations
The amendment to Article 1 of the Convention places explicit obligations on Governments to ensure the provision of a universal postal service within their countries. The obligations include the obligation of member countries to set forth a requirement to provide quality basic postal services at affordable prices. New Zealand expressed concern that this obligation goes beyond the UPU mandate as it represents the UPU regulating domestic postal services. However, it is considered appropriate to accept the provision because New Zealand can be considered to already comply with this requirement. This is because it provides the flexibility to allow countries to use any framework and to take into account the needs of the population and national conditions when fulfilling the provisions of the article.
Basic Services
The amendment to Article 10 of the Convention has the effect of including postal parcels as a basic service, in addition to letter-post items, and requiring postal administrations to provide for their acceptance, handling, conveyance and delivery. New Zealand expressed concern at the proposal because it represented the UPU regulating at treaty level a sector (parcels) subject to intense competition in many countries. However, the amendment has been worded to effectively make the requirements in the Convention concerning postal parcels optional for each country to apply in the interests of customers, which was acceptable to New Zealand.
Postal Security
The amendment to Article 9 of the Convention has the effect of including a requirement that postal administrations adopt and implement a proactive security strategy at all levels of postal operations. This is seen as an operational matter, which is the responsibility of New Zealand Post. New Zealand Post has accepted this amendment.
Child Pornography
The amendment to Article 63 of the Convention has the effect of including a requirement that the Governments of member countries undertake to adopt, or to propose to the legislatures of their countries, the necessary measures preventing and punishing the insertion of postal items of a paedophilic nature or of a pornographic nature using children. New Zealand’s Films, Videos, and Publications Classification Act 1993 already provides for this.
The Final Protocol to the Universal Postal Convention
The Final Protocol to the Universal Postal Convention sets out the particular reservations of certain countries concerning particular provisions of the Convention. No reservations were made by New Zealand concerning any particular provision of the Convention, as New Zealand chose to protect its interests by way of a general declaration that it would apply the Acts and regulations adopted by the Congress insofar as they are consistent with its international obligations. New Zealand has no concern with any of the reservations made by other countries.
There are economic and social benefits in the UPU treaties entering into force for New Zealand because New Zealand is able to continue to participate in the UPU system for the exchange of international mail.
It is not possible to quantify precisely the fiscal implications for New Zealand Post. Transend (New Zealand Post’s international subsidiary) has indicated that applying the amendments to the terminal dues system for international mail will have a minimal effect on net terminal dues payments/receipts. This is because the increased costs for outbound mail are being largely offset by increased revenues for inbound mail and an increase in international mail prices for New Zealand consumers for outbound mail.
There are no known proposals for future amendments to the UPU Constitution or the UPU Convention.
The formal implementation of the amendments to the UPU Constitution and the UPU Convention occurs on 1 January 2001, which is the date the Protocols signed at the Beijing Congress come into force. The amendments have been adopted by New Zealand, subject to ratification. Other than formal ratification, no legislative or administrative action is required by the Government.
Consultation with Transend has been undertaken. It has no objection to ratification of the amendments.
The amendments to the UPU Constitution and the UPU Convention become binding on member countries when they ratify them. They come into force on 1 January 2001. A member country of the UPU may withdraw from the Union or an agreement of the Union by giving one year’s notice of denunciation to the Director-General of the Union’s International Bureau.
